One other thing to keep in mind - while it's annoying to the consumer to be asked for ID, imagine how much visa hates it..
They've spent...200 million..probably more..Promoting check cards and how great they are because you don't need to carry around forms of ID like you do with a check..
Obviously, there's a bunch of other benefits that you still gain, but when merchants violates visa's policy on this, it invalidates all of their marketing efforts to show how easy the check card is to use. YAO..YO..YAO..YO..
Originally Posted by alanh
Correct. You're under no legal obligation to show the merchant your ID, so the 4th Ammendment doesn't apply. They may, however, refuse to do business with you.
Businesses have a very wide latitude over the conditions they can put on a sale, and over refusing service. Note the cases at WalMart and Best Buy where they banned people who were writing down prices.
Uh, I'd wonder if there was a reason they didn't have a valid inspection certificate. I'm not sure a free meal there was a great deal.